It All Happens for a Reason

“Why didn’t you call or text all summer?” 

“Sorry I was banned from the internet and got my phone taken away.”

Little did I know this was going to be the last conversation I had with who I thought was my best friend.

In late 2019 I met someone who changed my life. In the third trimester of 8th grade we had the same History class, and we both ended up trying to swim for the first time together. Little did we know that in just 2 months we would become the closest of friends.

I sat behind these 2 girls. Now one of them I knew a little , and the other one was new to the school. Now I am most definitely not one to go out of my way to make friends. I had one friend and I was content with that. When swim started up, I had no idea what I was doing at the time. It was my first time and to make it even worse I had no friends that were also doing swim.

“Hey, you’re in my history class right?” I scooted over in my seat and patted the wrinkly cusion of the bus. 

“Yea., Rose.”

“Riley.” As she sat next to me we started talking. We found out that we actually had a lot in common and we talked the whole way to the high school.

When we got to the pool we both went in the same lane as we both had the same skill level. From there on we became best friends. We went to shipshewana together in Indiana and she was always over. For about 5 weeks she would come over for 3 days at a time.  We were closer than I had ever considered me and my other friend to be.  Until we just stopped talking.

For the remainder of summer up until the start of 9th grade she hadn’t texted me once. Granted I also never texted her. I was glad I had her as a friend and to my surprise I was never really upset that she just, you know, left. It was more of the fact that I didn’t know why. There was no knowing how come she hadn’t called or texted. When the first full day of school came around I asked her at lunch.

“Where have you been lately?”

“Oh, I umm, got my phone taken away. I was banned from the internet.”

“How?” man that is a lame excuse.

“Discord.”

I mean I knew her parents were kind of strict but how does someone get their phone taken away for more than 3 weeks from discord?  “Oh, okay.”

That was the last real conversation we had together. Not once was I bothered that we stopped hanging out because it gave me new opportunities. Now ever since I had met Evie, I never hung out with my other friend Nicole any more. We were best friends but not as close as me and Evie. After I stopped hanging out with Evie, Nicole and I hung out a lot more. During the period of summer where Evie and I weren’t talking, Nicole was always over at my house and we swam all the time. We too became closer and it was amazing. After the first couple months of school Me and Nicole started talking with our other 3 friends that we never really hung out with. Victoria, Grace and Lynn. For some reason we all started talking and hanging out a ton. It was really great. Now we are all super close and do a lot of things together. Things that we haven’t done before. I used to be irritated that Rose and I were no longer friends, but now I look at it differently. If Rose never stopped talking to me, I wouldn't have started to reconnect with my other friends. This past couple of weeks all of us have had sleepovers — which we have never done — and biked all over. I can now truly say that I have more than 1 friend. Evie and I still talk from time to time, but never like we used to and I am okay with that. This whole experience has taught me that it is okay to reach out, take risks, and make friends. Even if it doesn’t always go the way you planned, there are always positives. I would never change the experience for the world, and I am happier now than ever.

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